Monday, October 24, 2011

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Mental Illness

I printed out copies of the articles posted on the USCF website concerning the 82nd FIDE Congress and read every word. Having just finished reading the book, A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by S. Nassir Ghaemi, I particularly liked the article by Michael Khodarkovsky, According to Kirsan: A Billion Clever People. (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11442/643) He writes, "When Mr.Ilyumzhinov started to talk about pending legal issues many were taken by surprise that he dedicated a great deal of time to demonize Garry Kasparov, “who wants to bankrupt FIDE” and glorifying Anatoly Karpov, his opponent at the 2010 FIDE Presidential election, “who joined the newly formed political party by Vladimir Putin in Russia” (Putin, Prime-Minister of Russia plans to return to his former position as President of Russia in 2012)."
It was answered by, "The audience was mute until Tomasz Sielicki, President of the Polish Chess Federation and Deputy President of the European Chess Federation, asked for the microphone and said: ”We all came here to discuss chess issues and I don’t understand why should we listen a political speech for more than an hour, which has nothing to do with the agenda.”
Why, indeed.
I read looking for information on Senior chess and found something by Sophia Rohde in her post of October 19, Sophia Rohde on the 82nd FIDE Congress. (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11438/643)She wrote, " Age categories for the senior World Championship of 60 and 70 was agreed on." I have absolutely no idea what that means.
Later, in the post USCF President Ruth Haring Wraps Up 82nd Fide Congress, (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11443/643)I found this: "The age categories for the World Senior will be changed to age 50 and 65 for both Men and Women."
It is more than a little obvious that what happened at the FIDE Congress in regard to Senior chess needs clarification.
Sophia also had this to say concerning the USCF practice of 'drop-ins'; those that 'drop-in' in the middle of a tournament playing several games at a much faster time control than those players in the 'main' tournament: "Things heated up considerably when discussing tournaments with two schedules merging to become one. Normal in many parts of the US, this is quite foreign in other parts of the world. Commission members quoted the FIDE Handbook paragraph 1.11 about requirements for title norms; “The tournament system must be a fair one. Tournaments where the composition is changed (without FIDE approval) during the tournament or those where players have different conditions in terms of rounds and pairing are not valid.”
"July 2013 will be a crucial date, that’s when FIDE expects every federation to follow the same FIDE Laws of Chess."
It is good to read that the reprehensible USCF practice of allowing many different tournaments to 'merge' into one section near the end of a tournament is "...quite foreign in other parts of the world."
Rather than leading the chess world in 'drop-ins' and half-point byes, USCF should consider leading the world by pulling out of the crooked, gansta run FIDE, led by a petty tyrant nut case.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've already mentioned several times on my blogs that the main FIDE site, Fide.com, has long been stripped of all meaningful news, unless you consider the comings and goings of the FIDE President to be newsworthy. • 'The FIDE President met this week with the Arch-Vice Minister of Belugastan. After bows and the exchange of traditional dairy products, it was announced that FIDE is considering the construction of a chess school in the form of an extra-terrestrial spaceship.'

From: http://chessforallages.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-nose-for-fide-news.html

Anonymous said...

You're mike thomas, rated 1900 correct?